Appling downplayed the injury, telling reporters “I kinda tweaked my knee a little bit when I was going up for a lob. It’s nothing major, I should be all right.”

His coach didn’t sound quite to sanguine. Though Appling did play the rest of the game, Tom Izzo thought the pain showed.

“They say it’s tendonitis — it’s nothing else. But you saw in the second half, he didn’t look the same.”

Indeed, Appling seemed to continue to perform at a high level offensively, ending up with 15 points and six rebounds, but he seemed a step slow defensively after the knee was tweaked. Appling addressed the fact that he had trouble stopping Valpo guard Erik Buggs in the second half.

Buggs scored all 14 of his points in the second half, driving past Appling to the rim.

“There were a couple of breakdowns, but you have to give him credit, he’s a very quick guy and he made some plays, finished really well at the rim,” Appling said. “The majority of that is on me, because I was the guy guarding him.”

Appling will likely rest and recover before Michigan State faces Memphis on Saturday, but his condition, and how he plays against the Tigers, will bring a few nervous moments for Spartans fans.

This is one of those “wish I hadn’t seen that” articles…MSU needs their point guards, look what happened when Kalin Lucas went down. I hope Appling is okay because MSU is going to need him if they want to make a run